Journal
ADVANCES IN NUTRITION
Volume 6, Issue 5, Pages 572-580Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.3945/an.115.008508
Keywords
transthyretin; lean body mass; malnutrition; inflammation; endocrine implications
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Plasma transthyretin (TTR) is a plasma protein secreted by the liver that circulates bound to retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) and its retinal ligand. TTR is the sole plasma protein that reveals from birth to old age evolutionary patterns that are closely superimposable to those of lean body mass (LBM) and thus works as the best surrogate analyte of LBM. Any alteration in energy-to-protein balance impairs the accretion of LBM reserves and causes early depression of TTR production. In acute inflammatory states, cytokines induce urinary leakage of nitrogenous catabolites, deplete LBM stores, and cause an abrupt decrease in TTR and RBP4 concentrations. As a result, thyroxine and retinol ligands are released in free form, creating a second frontline that strengthens that primarily initiated by cytokines. Malnutrition and inflammation thus keep in check TTR and RBP4 secretion by using distinct and unrelated physiologic pathways, but they operate in concert to downregulate LBM stores. The biomarker complex integrates these opposite mechanisms at any time and thereby constitutes an ideally suited tool to determine residual LBM resources still available for metabolic responses, hence predicting outcomes of the most interwoven disease conditions.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available